Have Dive Accidents and Fatalities Increased?

Dear Undercurrent,

In Undercurrent (p. 17 - April 22), Bret Gilliam stated, "The rate of accidents and fatalities has dramatically increased." That's not only impossible to determine but simply untrue.

Using the phrase "the rate of" requires us to know both how many of something exists and what the total was. In terms of diving, that means we'd have to know the number of fatalities (which we generally do know) and the number of dives made over the period that produced the fatalities. THAT'S the number we don't know.

Next, we don't really know the number of accidents, assuming Bret means non-fatal incidents that are different from fatalities. Most accidents aren't reported because the diver survives. And most accidents don't result in lawsuits that would bring them to light. A diver running out of air but doing a successful free ascent is considered an accident. So is a diver running out of air and embolizing but being successfully treated in a chamber.

In terms of fatalities, the DAN annual numbers tell a different story, at least in the U.S. and Canada. The most recent is the 2019 DAN accident/fatality report (based on 2017 stats) which listed fatalities. In 2018 (2016 stats), that number was 72, and in 2017 (2015 stats), it was 67. This is hardly a dramatic increase let alone a change in the rate since, once again, we don't know the denominator.

I will agree that, with many divers taking up to two years off from diving due to the pandemic, we might expect to see an increase in incidents, both fatal and non-fatal, due to people not taking time to refresh their skills or ease back into the sport, under the impression that time has stood still for them skill-wise. The diver they were in 2020 is the diver they are now in 2022.

Statistical manipulation to try to prove a point is an old trick. Rhetorical over-reach certainly isn't a crime. But it's not good journalism either.

- Ken Kurtis

Reef Seekers Dive Co. Beverly Hills, CA